On Perspectives. Mathematical logic arose from a concern with the nature and the limits of rational or mathematical thought, and from a desire to
systematise the modes of its expression. The pioneering investigations were
diverse and largely autonomous. As time passed, and more particularly in the
last two decades, interconnections between different lines of research and links
with other branches of mathematics proliferated. The suby"ect is now both rich
and varied. It is the aim of the series to provide, as it were, maps of guides
to this complex terrain. We shall not aim at encyclopaedic coverage; nor do
we wish to prescribe, like Euclid, a definitive version of the elements of the
suby"ect. We are not committed to any particular philosophical programme.
Nevertheless we have tried by critical discussion to ensure that each book
represents a coherent line of thought; and that, by developing certain themes,
it will be of greater interest than a mere assemblage of results and techniques.